the president is ow with a plan to prevent another newtown and residents have a plan of their own. rob cox will show us how they are working to honor the littlest angels. >> speaker boehner lays down the gauntlet. why am i worried it's not a lump of coal. >> a chilly reception on benghazi sending in an icy blast at the state department. is it more than hillary can handle? >> no holiday break for president obama, but words from a president past could offer a new path forward. the lbj connection. >> white house history is my favorite. all that and my spoken word on

why another past president had reason for holiday cheer. grab some cocoa. you are in the cycle. >> if you thought the fiscal cliff was a joke, listen to this, john boehner just 45 minutes ago. >> republicans ton to work towards avoiding the fiscal cliff. the president's offer of $1.3 trillion in revenues and $850 billion in spending reductions fails to meet the tests that the president promised the american people a balanced approach. i hope that the president will get serious soon about providing and working with us on a balanced approach. tomorrow the house will pass legislation to make permanent tax relief for nearly every

american. 99.81% of the american people. then the president will have a decision to make. he can call on senate and democrats to pass the bill or he can be public superior the largest tax increase in american history. . >> that is all john boehner had to say before walking out. even reporters shouting wait, wait, come back did nothing. don't think his plan b will go that far. president obama had this to say two hours ago. >> let's think about the logic for a second. they are thinking about voting for raising taxes and at least on folks over a million they say they don't want to do. they are going to reject spending cuts that they say they do want to do. that defies logic. there is no explanation for that. >> dan gross is a columnist in global business editor in the daily beast. you have been writing and

basically a column a day about the fiscal cliff standoff here. watching boehner, i was struck by -- i feel like i saw that a year and a half ago. the summer where he walked out and hit the detonate button on the grand bargain talks. the question everyone is trying to figure out is was this posturing on boehner's part or is the idea of a deal really crumbling before our eyes. >> it's largely posturing and we tend to swing to emotional extremes. they were saying the deal is done and obama will spare everybody under 400,000 and do a deal. it's clear where they are and it's a matter of time. they will go right it. then the house republicans have to vote for something. the possible solving was done and now probably the pessimism is probably overdone.

he has to give his caucus a chance to get on the record and vote for an alternative before doing something else. the question is going to be when it comes time to do something else and we are running out of time, whether he will bring along enough republicans to make a majority for it. >> seems like there is a question about whether he will bring along the 218 he needs tomorrow to pass the symbolic posturing and whatever you want to call it, plan b. there is grumbling that they don't want to vote for this thing. do you think this is going to get 218 votes? second of all, what does it accomplish if he has republicans defect something. >> grover norquist who is somewhere twreen tbetween the pa deity has given a blessing. since the doctrine rules, he said that if you vote for this, and you are sparing all the

other people from a tax increase. i think it's more likely today or tomorrow than it was several hours ago. republicans will vote for it. a large part of the base likes it and the president is rude to him. i think there is a decent likelihood. >> i love that norquist tries to reserve his power by saying no, no. my pledge stands and in your column, rich make out like bandits and i totally agree. i am looking at what the republicans offer and find unacceptable and includes cuts to social security benefits and does not extend the tax cut and includes giving in on where the tax hike starts from 250 to 400. i'm looking at this thing and as a democrat thinking this is not a good deal especially when we just won an a lection and had

the public behind us in terms of priorities. why should democrats accept this deal? >> this is the sort of things that drives progressives nuts. they are saying we should raise taxes on people who make more than $250,000 a year. all the polls saying even a majority of republicans say people making over $250,000 a year should pay more taxes to solve the crisis. he said okay, my offer is $400,000 you are rich and if you are making $398,000, you are only making seven or eight times the median income and you are struggling. we will have to take it out of retired people on fixed incomes. it is the type of posture that leads a lot of people to question whether he learned anything from his first term. >> dan, so much of what's going

negotiated doesn't address the huge systemic problems in the tax code. i talked about the amt that has to be patched every year for fear it will bankrupt the middle class. the estate tax only affects the tiniest sliver of americans. it affects a half million family farms and taxing people twice on money that they own. there problems that are affecting the middle class and all americans and we are just talking about raising taxes on the wealthy. >> there two issues. it's the systemic problems where we have the loopholes that have grown up and have big constituencies that people rely on and you try to get rid of the charitable reduction to try to get rid of the mortgages and the housing and banking industries go nuts. that to me is what's going to happen january 1st. i was at a lunch with a government official who was

saying it's kind of crazy that here we are saying not even two weeks ago we are not able to say what tax rates they will be. knowing what they are, it's certainty about the short-term that needs to be resolved one way or the other. that is a separate conversation from tax reform and entitlement reform. we will not solve the issues in the next ten days. they avert the out come no one seems to want and all the tax cuts going away. >> will we solve it in the next years? >> it all depends if there is the will. it takes a crisis. a trillion dollar deficit and not enough to force action. we still pay very little interest and the interest bill is shrinking. the primary deficit that we run

up every year has been shrinking for two years straight and will shrink a lot if we go over the fiscal cliff. i am not in the absence of a crisis. >> looking at what boehner just did, obama will be blame for the highest increase in history. i'm not optimistic that we are going to go over the cliff. it seems that way. baner and the gop are highly unpopular and 11% approval rate. obama is very popular. 57% from cbs and 54% from abc. is boehner correct that the president will get blamed for the tax increase. they trust the way the president is dealing and don't trust the way the gop is dealing. >> that's the first time boehner and drop the mike have been used. >> that's right. >> leave it to him.

>> i think the great challenge for obama is he wants consensus and they want to sign on to a tax increase and whatever deal and not run against it. they will sign on to something and run against it anyway. they at of them who voted for tarp and said six months later, how can we do the bailout? a lot of them created the drug entitlement, this huge open ended liability saying we can't afford medicare and we have to rip it up. what he wants is for them to stand on the stage with them and sign it and own any tax increase. he will be charged with the largest tax increase in history regardless of whether it's done through a deal or whether we go

over the cliff. >> they charged him with the largest tax increase in the affordable care act. thank you for joining us. the other big story, the president launches a gun violence task force. we will get reaction from a resident and one of our friends, rob cox. questions? anyone have occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating? yeah. one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. approved! [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. phillips'.

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>> today as the rest of the country gears up for the

weekend, newtown has the grim task of burying heros and tiny fallen. four more victims are being laid to rest. three children and first grade teacher victoria soto who died trying to protect the students in her class. 6 days after that tragedy, the president announced the formation of a gun violence task force which will be headed by joe biden. >> the fact that this problem is complexed can no longer be an excuse for doing nothing. the fact that we can't prevent every act of violence doesn't mean we can't steadily reduce the violence. and prevent the very worst violence. i will use all the powers of this office to help advance efforts aimed at preventing more tragedies like this. >> nbc's kristin welker is live. what's their mission here? >> i think their mission is to take a broad approach to tackle this issue of gun violence.

you heard president obama signal that he supports reinstating a ban on assault weapons and limning high capacity magazines as well as closing the gun show loophole. you heard him talk about the need to address people who have mental disabilities as well as addressing the overall culture of violence that is so pervasive in our society today. he wants to see proposals in the next few weeks and wants to talk about that in the state of the union address. here's more about what president obama had to say. >> that's why i asked the vice president to lead an effort to includes members of my cabinet and outside organizations to come up with a set of concreed propo proposals i intend to push without delay. this is a team that has a specific task to pull together reforms right now.

>> he talked about a january timeline and he knows time is of the essence. if he doesn't get anything done and this moment can pass him by. if you look at the polls, majority of mothers want to see stiffer controls. they see pro gun democrats who say the tragedy made them rethink their stance on gun control and they would be open to stiffer laws and it's still a divicive issue. we will hear from the nra on friday. the house judiciary committee said they have no intention to pass such laws through the chamber. there is still stiff opposition to stiffer gun control laws. president obama today saying that he is going to seize this moment, the public anger that exists in the wake to do something about it.

crystal? >> kristin welker, thank you so much. the president spoke about how action must come in our homes and in our hearts. one person for whom this tragedy hit far too close to home is rob cox who called it home since 1969. she an editor at reuters and more than anything, a newtown friend and neighbor. what's your response to what the president had to say today? >> i think it's everybody's heart. we have to do something about this. a lot of my friends and myself are trying to find ways to come up with a solution so that we can avoid and end the escalation of gun violence. it's a vile fact of our nation that we are too violent. these things are happening and a week ago i would have been on your show talking about the fiscal cliff and all those issues. here i am now, i had a kitchen

cabinet of friends today and everyone trying to figure out under the banner calling it newtown, united. trying to find a way to seize the moment and get people to change through legislation, largely our culture. it will take a lot more than a law here or there. it will take a lot of thinking and a lot of us rethinking the way we view violence and accept it in our homes. we are absolutely behind the president and his challenge when he was here at newtown high school where i am a proud graduate, it struck home that we have not done everything we can to protect our children. that's just wrong. >> you wrote eloquently and vividly about new and talked about it being a community. it has all of the trappings of what we think of in a typical small town community. i have to wonder, has our

definition of the word community changed? communities used to be places that protected themselves and were small enough to keep an eye on their own. realize when someone within the community needed help. have we outgrown the ability to prevent an adam lanza or jared loughner from doing what they are going to do and regain the sense of community? >> that's the right question. that's what we are asking and my column was about. he is one of our own. we can't forget that. nancy lanza is something i met and knew. you would never have suspected it. what did we do wrong? either in the schools or the way we embrace people in the super market and houses are worship. is there something we could have done? at a certain point you have to ask yourself hard questions

about the way we interact with each other and the way our schools and teachers and the things they pick up, but we have to ask questions about how this kid who we all didn't know, but certainly now it turns out there were people around him who knew he had problems. how did he have access to the weapons and how come no one told his mother? what are you thinking with all those weapons around the house. you are talking about how your kid has problems which seems to have been the case, why don't you do something about it? we need to be more alert, i guess. it does come down as we all have to grapple with the issue, maybe the laws are a problem and maybe even our constitution didn't quite mean what it said. >> along the lines of what i see, we are asking about the intimacy of small towns and how close-knit they can be and all the positives.

you are reading katherine newman who talked about school shootings. for some there is a downside of being a small town. it can be the stability and predictability that can often feel like a death sentence to those at the margins. i wonder, is that something living in a place like newtown, does that resonate with you at all, that idea? >> i don't know. i can think about it and when i look back when i left to go to college, i never thought i would go back to newtown. maybe that was a response to a small town. when i grew up and went abroad and lived all over the place and had children, i came back and thought wait a minute. this is exactly what works. i can look at my children and my friends's children, it is working. the town would look after each other's kids and each other. things slip through the net. that's what must have happened

here. that's the only way i can describe it. i don't think it's the fault of a small or large town. it's not really that there is anyone's fault. this kid is a product of our town. he's a product of us and we have to own him, but ask questions this happens in australia and france and the uk and happens in japan, but for some reason i don't see them grieving over 20 children that have been slain in their schools. that does come down to a question of our gun problem and gun culture and the way we cope with it. i know the families in this town when they are past their grieving and they never will be, but one of the things people want to do here in newtown united is to give them a platform and a voice and let's hear what they have to say. >> two things you mentioned. newtown united and the goals for the organization. you mentioned having knew or met

nancy lanza. can you give impressions of her from meeting her? >> it is a small town and a bunch of us play tuesday night ultimate frisbee in one of the local playing fields. we want to have a beer and we go to this place called my place. you have seen it on the news. nancy was i don't want to say a regular, but she was there and i chatted with her. a seemingly pleasant person and i'm sure she was. that's it. that's how small towns work, right? when i wait and saw i knew a number of people who lost a loved one, when the list came out, you said oh, no and realize the multiple connections you have to these people. that's how community works. as far as the group, newtown united, it's just a bunch of people who are so blessed and fortunate not to have lost a loved one and we have certainly

lost friend who is have lost loved ones. this group we feel energized and bolden and helpless to some degree. we are trying to find a way through it and bringing in speaker who is can come and so many people reached out from columbine and mayor bloomberg's office and all of our elected officials, i can't tell you how many have come to offer help. even though we had the first meeting that talked about a whole array of issues and how we respected the town and do we build a memorial or something to the children? everyone just kept coming around to the gun issue. we are not going to escape it. it's the elephant in the room and the families are going to want to talk about it. >> thank you so much for being with us. our best to you in the whole newtown community. >> straight ahead, the benghazi report and what it may or may not mean for hillary clinton. [ woman ] dear cat, your hair mixes with pollen and dust. i get congested.

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secretary clinton said she would do this and it would be a completely unvarnished appraisal and that's exactly what it is. she and the administration deserve credit for doing what was required here and for really going to great lengths to make it a special presentation. everything has been embraced by the state department and more. >> that is senator john kerry who will follow hillary clinton at state reacting to the government's report on the consulate on benghazi. lawmakers classified hearings and public hearings are tomorrow on the hill. secretary clinton was supposed to suffer and was told to rest after a concussion. no person is to blame that systematic failures made two bureaus grossly inadequate to

deal with the attack. they ignored the requests for more upgrades and relied too heavily and used them to protect the compound. the report is say major hit and so far three officials resigned. here to talk about this is mark ginsburg. my immediate reaction is i have no doubt that there plenty of things we can learn from this and steps that can be taken in the future and the things we can identify that should have been done here. i guess whey wondered and what i would like your take on, is there a certain element here where you are trying to set up a diplomatic operation during the time in middle east history and set it up on the fly. one of many around the world that the state department has to monitor and in a certain point, there is an element of risk that comes with being a diplomat overseas. is there a certain level where

we come out with a report and identify things that should be done differently. is there a certain point that these things can happen at any time? >> listen, ambassador stevens who i knew well and the people who were murdered along with him and brave and courageous in their own right in defending his own safety and security. look, these incidences, there is a wall of diplomats who have been killed in action including ambassadors. the fact is that this is a devastating report because it's devastating that there is a former ambassador and someone who worked over 20 years ago and worked on the issues myself. i realize that in some respects i think the real unwritten damning part of this report is how they let down their own fellow service officers. i dare say that if i were a

political appointing ambassador in libya and demanded more security, the people have been more responsive than they would have been responsive to their own. that really is ironic and yet that's how i feel about the matter. >> as much as you can never know when this is going to happen, we had reports from the house intelligence and it's also outlined in the hospital about numerous threats on that consulate and increased security that was denied. having gone through the port, the most damning recommendation was number one n. a post 2001 intelligence collection that expand expanded, the benghazi attacks are a stark remind they're we cannot overrely on the certainty or even likelihood of warning intelligence. careful attention should be given to factors showing a

deteriorating threat situation in general as a basis for improving security posture. key trends must be identified and used to sharpen calculations. to me what's implied there is since 9/11, we might have increased our security and intelligence capabilities and seem to have gotten complacent in feeling like the terror threats around the world are not as dangerous perhaps as we know them to be now. >> there is no doubt when i was in a major threat and attempted assassination and my security went up triple fold. what is most devastating was that the security office eric nordstrom who testified on the hill several months ago with the people i believe that the

taliban is within the state authority. they had the situation in kwlab and this was no surprise to anybody including me and yet the state department cold them to shut up and keep his mouth shut and take his concerns elsewhere. that's what i think is most damning about what happened here. >> ambassador, i was hoping you could give us a ground level view of what it's like to be inside the state department and what the protocol is. who are the security requests sent to? what is the procedure for deciding which request is oriented and which are not? what's your guess as to why these particular security requests weren't granted? >> i think first of all, the way this normally works quickly is that the embassy has a regional security officer and he reports to the security officer of each regional bureau. in this case the near east

bureau. on the overlay of the near east bureau is the diplomatic security bureau that allocates and decides what the threat atmosphere is in each. in this situation, what happened is that the state department regional security officer knew the threat level increased dramatically, but for some reason and i don't know if the report reveals publicly and i haven't seen these or have access to the annex, for some reason the security office and the managing bureau the state department cookie cuttered libya into another category rather than one that placed it on a higher threat level. there was a total break down between what the regional security officer was learning about and the bureaucrats in the state department who were saying what you are saying that doesn't fit into the definition to the increase in security. >> you made it clear that they

failed the benghazi consulate before the attack and makes clear that once the attack happened, their response was timely and appropriate and senior level agency discussions were under way soon after washington received the attacks through the night. the board found no evidence of undo decision making or support from washington. quite the contrary. all government personnel from benghazi 12 hours afterwards is the result of exceptional government coordination and military response and helped save the lives of two severely wounded americans. what do you make of that part of the report? >> that should be right and the department reacted and they reacted very quickly and professionally as soon as they got wind of the report. yet again i think the department and the u.s. government responded the way any u.s. government should have responded when they had that type of threat occur and where the attack had begun.

no reason to question that aspect i suspect. >> thanks for joining us as always. up next more on all of this. ♪

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tend to weigh less than those who don't. multigrain cheerios i take responsibility. i'm in charge of the state department. 60,000 plus people all over the world, 275 posts. the president and the vice president certainly wouldn't be knowledgeable about specific decisions that are made by security professionals. >> that of course secretary of state hillary clinton accepting blame and saying she accepts every one of the recommendations from the independent panel ask suggested her own additional changes as well. some think she will be the next president of the united states, but could this take the bloom off the rose that is hillary 2016. this is a tough critical report. it is devastating. mistakes were made by bureaucrats.

does anyone think no, they don't need it? of course not. the idea of a cover up is blown away by ordering the report. clearly there is no cover up she is trying to cover up. disproves one of the core taxes that after this started, they are failing to provide appropriate military support. clearly they did and they were exceptional. the long-term political impact will be nil. they don't look at this as a scandal and a tragedy. there is no cover up and they cost her one vote in the primary or the general in 2016. what we see is self analysis. she ordered this and is taking responsibility for things she didn't do. she is instituting changes above and beyond what the report demands. she is leading the way to make this bet. >> there two ways of understanding the political

fallout. if you take it head on and say is this report and the issue of benghazi going to sink her in 2016 and cost her votes in 2016 and is it going to come up in 2016? we need to broaden the understanding of how it plays out. since 1992, for the first 15 1/2 years, she was one of the chief villains that they had. she and her husband could not stand the clintons. obama sur planted the clintons and suddenly republicans decided hillary clinton is the good democrat. they treated her and treated bill clinton as the good democrat and she has a 70% approval rating. there has to be a moment sometime soon where republicans go back to attacking the clintons daily. it's the only way to stop her. the significance of this moment

is this is where it begins. it may not be benghazi they are over, but this is the moment when their posture will shift. >> i agree with that and i also agree with the sentiment that this is not going to have a big impact on ambitions. republicans missed an opportunity to make a political point about hillary on this. instead they decided to focus wrongly on susan rice who had very little to do with this and this conversation about her talking points on sunday, morning talk shows. mccain gave hillary a pass. it's the holidays and there is other stuff in the news. hillary will leave the state department and go on to do great work in the world in nonprofit areas. it will be hard for republicans to attack her past this point because she is not going to be in the political arena until she declares to run for president in 2016. >> she has been given a pass,

but republicans and everyone interested in getting to the bottom of benghazi, people were trying to ask everyone questions they could. hillary has not made herself available and decided not to testify again this week. >> she didn't decide. she has a concussion. >> and you believe that? she is lying about the concussion? >> she will have to testify in the future. >> she wants to testify. >> i went through and looking for any mention of hillary clinton and there wasn't one. that's okay, but to a certain extent the blame placed on the state department ends at her disk and there is a black mark on her record. i don't think this is going to last through the holidays let alone over the next four years. as with a cover up, the details of this report end on september 12th. it doesn't look into that aspect

and they will do so until they get answers on that front as well. >> it will be a black mark. let's take a moment for a holiday up deachlt today is the busiest day for package deliveries. 365 million are on the trucks before you crack open the family eggnog. monday was the busiest calendar day of the postal service. 368 million pieces of mail alone. if all those holiday wishes don't make it before we leave on friday, there is facebook. look. we are already getting some. alyssa said i wish you all a fiscal cliff resolution to stop spring the wheel. >> so do we. >> i hope that comes true. yes, virginia, there is a santa claus. yes, alyssa, there is an end in sight. post messages on facebook. msnbc. speaking of the holidays, the

president can't catch a break even around the holidays. serious tests of ranging from gun control to getting a fiscal deal and how a past president faced challenges and got it done next on the cycle. [ male announcer ] citi turns 200 this year. in that time there've been some good days. and some difficult ones. but, through it all, we've persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. so why should our anniversary matter to you? because for 200 years, we've been helping ideas move from ambition to achievement. and the next great idea could be yours. ♪

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i vote for your florida beaches, dawn. bill, this louisiana seafood is delicious. we're having such a great year on the gulf, we've decided to put aside our rivalry. now is the perfect time to visit anyone of our states. the beaches and waters couldn't be more beautiful. take a boat ride, go fishing or just lay in the sun. we've got coastline to explore and wildlife to photograph. and there's world class dining with our world famous seafood. so for a great vacation this year, come to the gulf. its all fabulous but i give florida the edge. right after mississippi. you mean alabama. say louisiana or there's no dessert. this invitation is brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home. >> what voters were looking for is some compromise up here. that's what folks want. they understand that they are

not going to get 100% of what they want. for some reason that message has not yet taken up on capitol hill. >> all president obama sounds like he wants for christmas is a compromise, getting republicans and democrats do to working to and that haunted many a president. lyndon b. johnson was one known for his ability to work across the aisle and shmooze and twist a few arms along the way. take a listen to the soon to be released phone call talking with dr. martin luther king,jr. about efforts to get congress to move. >> got a tax bill they haven't touched. and we just got to not let up on any of them and keep going. and i guess they'll say i'm repudiated but i'm going to ask the congress there to pass them all. they won't do it.

but we'll keep them next year until they do it. we won't give up an inch. >> -- gotten a deal on the fiscal cliff. with us now is mark upgrove president of the lyndon b. johnson library in texas. and also author of "indomitable lbj." for as much criticism as the gop's gotten for their lack of willingness to work across the aisle with the president, the president's also gotten plenty of criticism himself for failing to work across the aisle with republicans. so what advice should president obama learn from lyndon johnson as he moves through these fiscal cliff negotiations. >> well, one of the things i think he can learn from johnson is johnson won election to the presidency in 1964. he knew he had a very limited period of time in order to get his agenda through. that for political capital was

afemoral. so he needed to spend it as soon as possible. he didn't consider his election to the presidency a mandate but rather a loophole. and he needed to get through that loophole as soon as he could. >> mark, lbj was a famously persuasive person. but to get gun control was it necessary for the mood to be shaped bid three public high-profile gun deaths of jfk, rfk and mlk in the years before? >> yeah. i think that was essential. if you look at the tragedy that lbj faced during the course of the administration, he never failed to utilize it in order to get legislation passed. in the case of john f. kennedy, for instance, he used the martyrdom to get the civil rights act of 1964 through. and after the assassination of his brother robert kennedy, he got some gun control bill. not as big a bill as he wanted,

but he compromised and got something through congress in 1968. >> i'm endlily fascinated with lbj. i love the robert carroll books. i'm a little bit frustrated not directed at you but in general. i hear so many people use the example of lbj in domestic policy in his presidency as a point of measure for obama. they say only if he had the skill, the savvy how to work congress that lbj had. and he was the master of the senate. but there's a huge difference between the mid-1960s and where we are today. if you can think back and you had these moderate liberal republicans who were eager, happy to reach across party lines and work with the democratic president if he could accommodate them on something. we have such partisan polarization. democrats all vote together on everything. though there are a few more defections on that side. i wonder even if somebody had

lbj's skill, would it be worth much on domestic policy? >> well, there's no doubt that washington has changed since the days of lyndon johnson. we were about to unveil a $10 million redesign to our core exhibit on president johnson. front and center in that exhibit are the phone conversations of lbj doing the business of his presidency. and you can hear the facility with which he reached across the aisle. but i think if lbj were in office at any point during our history, he would have gotten things done. he was a master psychologist and he knew what made people tick. he knew how to get people who mattered to say yes. >> mark, thanks for being with us. we just heard audiotapes of the president. next live on tape from our man steve kornacki. sfx- "sounds of african drum and flute" look who's back. again? it's embarrassing it's embarrassing! we can see you carl. we can totally see you. come on you're better than this...all that prowling around. yeah, you're the king of the jungle.

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that tax deal that was supposedly taking shape earlier this week no longer seems to inevitable. but there's still time before the end of the year, and if there does end up being a deal, at least now we know roughly what it will look like. and there's two ways of looking at it. obama could be on the hand of scoring a remarkable victory. for two decades ever since george h.w. bush had his read mississipmy lips no new taxes. not a single republican has voted to increase taxes. not even once. or especially as it relates, has become one of the most consistent adamant planks in the gop platform. that is the posture they took into the current negotiations.

obama said the final deal include a rate hike on income over $250,000. something that would effect the top 2% of wage earners. playing around with loopholes and reductions. basically the same plan that mitt romney pushed burg the campaign. but obama stood his ground. he even took his case back to the public with a series of campaign-style stops the past few weeks. and guess what. it's kind of worked. republicans started speaking up not in droves but in numbers not seen in decades to say yeah, the president has the leverage here. we're going to have to give in. that applies to john boehner to. his latest offer is on income over $1 million. obama now says he'll settle for $400,000. so if there's a deal, it's going to be somewhere between those numbers. no matter where it is, it will signal the end of 22 years of total and complete refusal